Ewan Morrison is a Scottish author and screenwriter, described as "the most fluent and intelligent writer of his generation here in Scotland" by Booker judge Stuart Kelly. Early life Morrison was born in Wick, Caithness in 1968, son of the singer Edna Morrison and the poet and librarian David Morrison. In interviews and essays Morrison has talked about his unorthodox childhood as part of a 'hippie experiment', the childhood bullying he endured and the difficulties he experienced, growing up as a cultural outsider with a stutter (stammer). He claims these experiences have influenced how he found his voice as writer. Morrison graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1990, learned to manage his stutter and began work as an art critic and filmmaker before turning to fiction writing. Fiction Morrison became a full-time writer in 2005 and has since published six novels and one collection of short stories. His seventh book, Nina X, will be published in April, 2019. The Last Book You Read and Other Stories Morrison's first book, The Last Book You Read and Other Stories, is a short story collection which explores modern relationships in the era of globalisation and was described by The Times as "the most compelling Scottish literary debut since Trainspotting”. Bertold Schoene in The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature, said "Morrison is concerned with the indispensable necessity of personal relationships, the heroic effort it takes to initiate, trust and maintain them as well as the common everyday trials inherent in being generally human in our globalised twenty first-century world…undeniably Morrison’s collection of short stories makes a contribution to contemporary world literature". The Last Book You Read and Other Stories led Morrison to being short-listed for the Arena Magazine Man of the Year Award in 2006. One of the short stories within it was made into the short film None of the Above, starring Holli Dempsey. Distance Distance is Morrison's second novel – "exploring the issue of long-distance relationships, and through this, jealousy, phone sex, parenthood, paranoia, alcoholism and despair". The Telegraph said, "[Morrison’s] narrative voice is completely original. His prose feels utterly contemporary, with a smooth, readable texture. It is an unusual stylistic shorthand as much influenced by text messaging and emails as literary fiction". The Times called it "utterly compelling... On this form, Morrison is one of the finest novelists around". However, other reviewers found the book depressing. "A death would